Tendril Reveals Winners of Crowdsourcing Developer Challenge

Tendril has revealed the winners of the maiden crowdsourcing challenge, offering instantaneous access to customer information and feedback for developers. Two applications have been declared the winner of the contest, which concluded after a program spanning three months. The contest was backed by Tendril in association with Netherland’s major energy firm, Essent N.V.

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The Tendril Connect cloud platform was used to connect 140 Essent smart meter-enabled residential customers with third-party developers worldwide, as part of the project. Essent's participating clients chose snApp, an iPhone (News - Alert) application as the winner of the Consumer Award. The app comprises of a dial that displays actual energy utilization of a customer in a simplified, graphical interface. Essent chose iWattMeter as the winner of the Essent Award. Consumers are offered an improved visibility into time-of-use trends, etc. with this app, which displays detailed energy utilization information over time.

In a statement, Adrian Tuck, CEO of Tendril said, "We're proud to have provided the technology platform for this landmark project. For the first time developers, consumers and an innovative energy company came together in a crowdsourcing project using real-time data. With the unparalleled customer access provided by Essent, these developers have achieved true consumer engagement, making energy consumers actual participants in the development of applications they will use to make smarter energy decisions. Congratulations to the winners, snApp and iWattMeter, on creating powerful applications built on Tendril Connect."

According to Jai Agaram, creator of iWattMeter, developers were offered a unique association with a utility and its clients for developing a customer-centric application.

Arjan van der Eijk, director for Smart Energy at Essent said, "The co-creation project was a resounding success, with our customers genuinely engaged with the entire development process and the development teams valuing the direct customer feedback. The Tendril Connect platform was instrumental in unlocking real-time customer data for use by the application developers and providing the necessary tools to deliver compelling apps by the end of the project. We're excited at the potential value the two winning apps can bring to our customers."

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